mfd101

Age 28? I don't think he needs Daddy looking after him on a daily basis. Perhaps Daddy just wanted an excuse to join in the fun. Needed a story for Mummy back home.

Well, what a surprise! As societies get 'richer', their citizens get lazier and fatter and eat worse and worse foods. Who would have thought?

I went to the Prasat Revenue Office here in Surin province this morning. All as you might predict (if you're an optimist). Girls behind the desk very helpful. Took a little bit of back'n forth between them & my b/f for them to fully understand the matter in hand). Possible implication (though I didn't ask): May not be too familiar with dealing with non-Thais, but it wasn't a problem & they were very courteous to this ol' man. Then copies of p/p, house book, & Immigration record of our address (as I'm not actually IN the house book), then my signature on the multiple copies. Print out of the result in Thai, with the TIN very clear. Unsigned by the Big Boss till tomorrow. Pick up Thursday morning. Meantime I have sent off to the NAB the requisite (unsigned) doco but clearly showing the TIN. Tried not to sound too triumphant. As pointed out above, none of this means I HAVE to lodge a return early next year. My current thought is that, unless further information, rules 'n regs are forthcoming, I won't do anything because I think I'm 100% covered by the Oz/Thai DTA s.19(2). (However the entry immediately above this suggests I will have to. In which case so be it.)

Funnily enough, if they plant all the trees they say they're going to do (and good on them), the effect might be to delay the flooding of Bangers by perhaps 1 year ...

The on-stage 'debate' between the 2 contenders - assuming there is one - will go a long way to deciding the outcome, just as it did with Biden. We have a fair idea how Trump will do. Harris is (at least to me) more of an unknown in that context. Her reputation is that she's not much good at coherent argument (surprising in a lawyer, I should have thought). If she can rise to the occasion, she might just lock in a win.

It's going to be a surprise either way - a nasty one or a nice one.

'Prominence' translates (partly) in to 'popularity', as every politician knows. Just look at Trump ...

OK

My bank is NAB and their form doesn't give that option. Don't know what the 2nd bit means. or how to fix.

As far as I can (now) judge, my bank doesn't like me saying in effect 'There's no point in me doing anything till early next year', meaning 'I won't even try' ... Anyway, I've moved on in my understanding & I will try this coming week ...

Well, they weren't accepting of my response along those lines for the last few weeks. Though my answer was more along the lines 'The Thais won't give me one till next year when I have to lodge my first tax return here'. On your second point, I'm assuming that - having received a TIN - I can either do nothing on the basis that my income can be taxed ONLY in Oz, or - I think more likely because of the amount of money I bring in to Thailand each year to support me, my b/f & his family - I will have to lodge a return but with no tax to pay.

Because my Australian bank - creature of the Australian Tax Office - is insisting I have a Thai TIN and has frozen one of my accounts till I do. Once I have a Thai TIN I don't have much choice - it seems to me - but to lodge a tax return each year, starting next Jan-Mar. As my only income comes from Federal Government superannuation & must therefore be taxed - I think - ONLY in Oz (s.19/2 of the DTA), I don't expect I'll end up paying anything extra here in Thailand. Fingers crossed. I'll have a better idea after next Tuesday when I plan to call on the worthies of the TRD here in Prasat Surin. It may be an interesting life experience. Or not.

And the 20 or 30 million impoverished peasants who don't have an income of more than 5000฿ a year, and can't read or write, and don't have a bank account, and wouldn't know one end of a mobile phone or desktop computer from the other ... What's The Wallet going to do for them?

Just another manifestation of the Thai obsession with status.

Thais love complexity. Most 'changes' or 'reforms' are add-ons, not replacements.

An issue for me in all of this is: Will my 'spouse' (Thai male) in a gay marriage (actually Australian Capital Territory civil partnership dating from 2013, before 'gay marriage' was available in Oz) count as a 'spouse' next year when I prepare my first-ever Thai tax return? It appears to be advantageous to do a joint return, particularly when your spouse has - as in my case - no independent income.

So more beefing than beef for a while.

And here in Surin - at the end of the world - I was blissfully unaware of all this, working away on my iMac. Couldn't understand why, when I tried to ring my bank in Oz, the Thai service person said 'That number does not exist try again' ...

Same everywhere in rural Thailand. The peasants inch forward, and occasionally the government beats them back or does a deal ...

Unpredictability has both advantages & disadvantages. Enemies & neutrals like it because they think they can live with it and manipulate it. Friends hate it because they know they can't depend on him.

Here in south Surin, my b/f has had similar symptoms (mainly a cough) for about 3 or 4 weeks, though seems to be much less now. He takes the usual Thai bags of pills to suppress symptoms ... I have no symptoms at all.

Yes, the absence of Thai TIN seems to be my issue with NAB too. Of course NAB - as, I assume, all Oz banks - are responding to ATO pressure on the matter. What in practice they expect us to do in the current in-between Thai context is unclear.

And so our modernity advances ever closer to total victory over difference, killing everything in its path. Come back in 50 years and there'll be no point in leaving home, ever.

If every politician had to resign on the basis of what he said 5 or 10 years, ago, there wouldn't be any politicians left.

What? where? There's nothing on NY Times or Washington Post or Le Monde or The Australian or The Times ...